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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Mini Quilt Fun

Today, I decided that I had caught up enough from our trip and that I could play some in my studio.

Just before I left for Italy, I had purchased the book “Inspired to Quilt” by Melanie Testa ….. I loved her ideas about using paints and different layers to create the quilt top and then I REALLY loved the way that she quilted her pieces!!! One of the tutorials was about using freezer paper as a mask when painting with thickened dye. Well, I didn’t have any dye to thicken, so I decided to use the Water Soluble Oil Pastels that I had learned to use in a Margaret Hunt workshop back in May (here is the post about that workshop).

The brand that she suggested were Portfolio Brand I began the process by picking out a floral design that I liked and then I transferred it to freezer paper and then carefully cut out the design.

I ironed it onto a piece of PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric and then ironed a larger piece of freezer paper onto the back of the PFD. The purpose of this was to stabilize the fabric better and to also remove the worry that the colors might soak thru the fabric…..

I then picked my palette of colors and scribbled swatches of each color on the shiny side of another piece of freezer paper….

I dipped a brush in water and used it to liquefy the colors and then apply them to the fabric……

When the piece was completely colored, I took the pastels and used them directly on the fabric to add some extra highlights…..

In each case, I would draw a few lines and then use the brush to “scrub” the color into the fabric.

I removed the freezer paper resist…..

….let it dry, added a border fabric and then sandwiched it in preparation for quilting. Then the really fun part started…. I first quilted around the design and then started using various threads to add more interest to the piece.

I finished the edge by simply folding the border over to the back and stitching it in place.

Here is the one of the finished pieces……

and here is the second…..

They were SO much fun to make and I am looking forward to playing with this technique lots more!!!!